A story about the death of decadence.
Set prior to the CMC getting their marks.
Featured as of 8/4/23????? Somehow??????
Chapters (1)
- Member Since 24th May, 2021
- offline last seen 12 hours ago
Tela
Roughly three badgers in a trenchcoat, with doe-eyes to match.
Tela
Joined 24th May, 2021 ·
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Why did you make this so small?
11658276
Tried to strike a balance of differentiating between description and context while keeping the context legible. I can make it bigger if need be.
Bonny work, from the doorknob investment to sisterly discourse to the loss of Rarity's visual periphery and a'. A very enjoyable read, with the like and favourite well-deserved.
okay, the ending was great.
What a terrifying thing to hear from one of the Crusaders
11658342
It is, but I think
is far more terrifying.
This was a very very great read, so many thoughts
11658345
Well, NileRed isn't dead yet, and he personally made his own Uranium Glass.
A well written, in-character, and genuinely funny fic!! Thank you for writing it, and I hope your Social isn't as compromised as it seems!!
11658345
It's relatively common in older ceramics of a certain age too, I believe, being that it apparently gave a very vivid colour.
Pretty much entirely harmless though, unless you start scraping ceramic off and eating the shavings anyways.
You write this banger and then wonder why it's featured???
This is phenomenal. It's intelligent, well written, amusing, and cute all at the same time! I saw one run on sentence filled with comma splices, but got too absorbed into the story to care. You did a good job with this! Thanks for posting it, and it definitely deserves to be featured.
I think my favorite image in this is Rarity engaged in the banal task of cooking meals. She's thinking about things which aren't crusaders or bearers or whatever. She even gets splotched by hot egg juice, which is the minor chord in the sequence--the hero's journey is not a tranquil one, etc.
But it's a good piece of characterization because it sets a tone for her being the older sibling, and the dance of their pace as she and Sweetie Belle go to Home Depone is a nice touch, too. I can tell that the author is in a philosophic mood, and slice-of-life can be a good vehicle for that.
I would've thought that with a title like that, this would've been more on the random side, not that I'm complaining that it served to be a good SoL with a touch of amusement involved.
There's something on the sweet side about having someone's curiosity indulged like that, even if a little bit of the magic of the world dies inside from being disillusioned, because it wasn't as special as you thought it was.
It's interesting (and neat for my taste) that the whole thing was kicked off by Sweetie using a magic light spell in a bit of an unconventional manner, in the sense of "this fluoresces this way under this frequency," especially because it was before she even got her cutie mark.
There was also the note of surprise going two ways, since Rarity did not know that she had uranium in her house.
...and finally, the blacklight ending.
Oh?
Oh.
OH
Oh Celestia no
Had a grandma recently pass and my dad got all her "carnival glass." Some of it is the uranium stuff. This story is 100% relatable.
11658785
wait what does it mean?
11658850
I'll give you a hint. Gordon Ramsey uses black lights a fair bunch on Hotel Hell.
11658932
who's Gordon Ramsey? what's Hotel Hell?
Uranium glass is awesome.
11658342
Reminds me of this Calvin & Hobbes comic:
cobalt glass is kind of the same way too, its beautiful, its a deep blue, and they used a metric ton of poisonous dust to get it that way, basically anything used for smelting and or glass making is pretty toxic to the people making it
oh also glassblowers used to be semi-exhiled from wherever they lived because the risk of fire was so great they got their own little enclave closeish to the town without being close enough to burn it to the ground
11658986
Sorry, you only get one hint.
11658305
Thank you! This story was partially based off an actual experience I recently had with discovering lead glass around my house, so I'm glad I was able to turn that into an actual coherent story.
11658342 11658345
I like to view the Crusaders as a loose cannon crossed with MacGyver. You don't know how they did it, they don't know how they did it, but everything that they get their hooves on has the potential to become a destructive device in ways that cannot be replicated by science. Rarity's used to it.
11658379
I'm glad you were able to pull some meaning away from this!
11658415
Me too! And thank you for reading; I'm surprised I was able to pull off the character voices well since I haven't seen episodes of the show recently.
11658634
Thank you so much! I'm still a tad confused as to how it ended up in the box, cause I didn't really think this was up to my usual standard of quality, but it's been anointed as a banger, and I've never been happier to be wrong. Glad you enjoyed the read!
11658681
Thank you!!!!! I didn't edit this one so there was bound to be at least a couple issues, but I'm glad it doesn't detract from the overall work much!
11658688
Life isn't about the big flashy moments. It's about the buildup. In my own life, I've never had a philosophical revelation when my life was exciting. When I'm doing slice of life stuff, I try to make that more apparent. Find the meaning and.message in the smaller parts of being alive, and hey - cooking's a wonderful vector for that.
It's so relieving to know that the pace of the grocery store sequence was done well. When I'm writing dialogue, I always have a ton of trouble differentiating between scenebuilding and just kinda chucking in random actions to break up the wall of speech. That's actually part of why I thought this fic wasn't going to do very well - it's mostly dialogue, and so most of the writing process was spent in that uncomfortable zone. SUPER happy to know it flows well, thank you.
Also - while I do greatly appreciate the "philosophical mood" comment, I do have to correct the record a little. I AM incredibly thankful you thought so - much appreciated - but it was more of a "I forgot to eat today, oops" mood. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment!
11658736
I love expanding on the mundanities of how magic would be used in a world where it's considered normal. The thought process behind that little decision was "We've seen the ponies use their horns as flashlights before - why shouldn't they be able to control the color? And since color is wavelength, can they go beyond the visible light spectrum with practice?" This eventually turned into (and I really should have done a better job making this clear in the text, whoops) that Sweetie had rented an old glass appraiser's handbook from the library, and the instructions on how to modify the light spell were in there. That was supposed to be the book Sweets retired upstairs with in the intro.
I'm glad you enjoyed the blacklight ending! It may or may not have been based on personal experience. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
11658785
I TOTALLY didn't do this exact thing myself. Nuh uh. No way.
11658794
I'm so sorry for the loss of your grandmother, and I hope you're healing well. The fact she had some uranium glass, though, is quite neat. Full disclosure: I was NOT expecting to get a comment calling this little tale relatable, but I'm very glad it was!
If you're comfortable sharing photos, I'd love to see some of the glass. I just got into uranium glass collection and while my budget is quite limited, I LOVE seeing other people's pieces! Totally good if no - thanks for stopping by and reading either way!
11658986
I have absolutely NO idea how this story was your first exposure to Gordon Ramsey, but you are in for a WORLD of entertainment and funny clips. If you search "Kitchen Nightmares" on YouTube, it'll suddenly make a LOT more sense.
11659209
It is! And the best part is that a lot of people have some and don't even realize!
11659236
The Crusaders in a nutshell. LOVE Calvin and Hobbes.
11659266
I did NOT know that glassblowers used to have their own separate hovels. That's super super neat. I also haven't found any cobalt glass yet - do you know if it's UV reactive?
11659994
Thank you for the condolences. I might be wrong about the uranium content of the glass. I'll check the makers marks against the year and that should give me a pretty good idea if uranium was used. Like I said my dad has the glass so pictures might have to wait until I get some time to visit and ask him.
BTW, this was very well written. Keep up the fine horsewords.
11659994
Mhm. It checks out, seems legit, captain.
The uranium glass is a little detail I did not really expect to show up here. I knew about it already from a technology connections video, but assumed most people wouldn't be aware/interested.
I believe it was banned from production because of the radiation? But back in the day, no one knew or cared, and they'd put uranium in anything, even toothpaste.
11658785
I often consider how the valuable becomes commonplace as time progresses, and indeed how the difficult becomes easy. I think that AI generated art is the newest example of this. It might make handpainted watercolours and oils more valued, simply because they cannot be churned out as fast.
In the words of the Late Great Sir Terry Pratchett:
This is so... mundane... but that's what makes it so good.
It's not some grand goofy escapade, it's not the aftermath of a Crusader misadventure.
It's just... really really well written slice of life mundanity.
It's so mundane it wraps around and becomes really investing and interesting.
11660315
If you have access to a blacklight of any kind, it's fairly easy to check. Just shine it on the glass. If it glows green (and you'll know - it is NOT a subtle green), that's uranium. No worries on the pictures - it's neat that you might have some at all.
And thank you! I've already got my next fic in mind, and will start working on it within the next couple days. Thanks again for the read!
11660407
Didn't know about the toothpaste! And you're right about it being banned, just not the reason for it. Uranium being used for glass was banned for about 15 years because it was needed for WWII. We all know the outcome of that - but afterwards, the ban was lifted, and some manufacturers made it up through (to my knowledge) the 70s, if not farther.
Most people aren't aware! I've been aware of it for several years, though, and only recently started actually collecting it. I've got five "normal" pieces of glass and one VERY interesting vase (it's not any of the typical colors you'd expect from uranium glass, and I actually mistook it for ceramic when I first saw it because of how opaque it was). I actually hope it becomes more popular, because that means more people will get to learn about it. I just think it's neat.
11660479
Would you believe me if I only realized this story can be read as a commentary on AI after I posted it? Wasn't my goal when writing, but I'll take it!
I think the current AI art situation is a bit different than how the industrial revolution changed and cheapened fine art, but I won't get into that. Thank you for the read, and I hope you enjoyed the fic!
11660549
I touched briefly upon this in another comment, but I've never had a really meaningful moment when my life was exciting. This isn't to say that the exciting portions of my life haven't had their impact, I can point to a number of different things in my own time on this Earth that have left both an impression on me and my heart pounding, but when it comes down to the things that stick with me on a really fundamental level, the things that form the foundation of me... it's the small things. Cooking a meal and thinking while the steam wafts up and curls above the pan. A small talk with a friend, or even a stranger. Sitting by a fire and laughing with people.
i am so, SO glad that I seem to have captured that and put it on paper. I've struggled with low-energy scenes in writing for a while, and to finally have confirmation I seem to have got at least ONE good example down... thank you. So much.
11660478
"Illuminated sobbing"
My sides are gone
Fun story! What a neat little slice of life!
It has good family vibes, learning from the past and philosophy, Funny moments from a adventurous child, and a happy atmosphere over all~
Until next time!
The definition of slice of life, wonderfully done!
Yeah, all manner of... interesting materials have been used through th years, and still are in some cases! Uranium, cyanide, and arsenic are some of the simple ones - there was actually quite the fad during the Victorian age for this very specific, unique shade of green achieved with arsenic. It was much later that people realized the dye would leach into the wearer's skin over time.
And radium... well, the Radium Girls is a well known case, but did you know that they used it for, basically, energy drinks back in the day?!?
And, of course, David Hann's home-made high school nuclear reactor, built from smoke alarms, night vision scopes, and various other store-shelf items.
And to make Sweetie (and perhaps the author) feel better, black lights do not mean as much as people assume. In addition to blood and other... bodily fluids... there are a metric assload of things that show up the same way... including many, many chemical household cleaning agents. Like laundry detergent. So you may just need a better rinse cycle.
This was informative.
You wonder why this fic got featured? Possibly because a lot of people were like me, and, upon reading the summary and title, developed a sudden urge to read about doorknobs.
And you know what? I got to read about doorknobs! Thanks for the fic, it was funny and I learned a few things!
Haha, I loved that ending.
11661365
So glad you enjoyed the read!
11661394
Thank you. Saying this is “the definition of slice of life” is HIGH praise, and I really do appreciate it.
I did know about the energy drinks! Radium water was… definitely a choice. Definitely an interesting choice in humanity’s history.
And yeah, it will help Sweetie to know cleaning agents show up.
11661892
SO happy you were able to learn! A lot of this is new to me, too.
11661953
Glad you liked the ending!
well this is adorable 💜
I wish I could properly convey how impressed I am with the opening, but there is a limit to how many words I — seemingly unlike you — can make good use of when conveying the degree and nuances of a single point;
I look forward to seeing more by you.
Very enjoyable read and great ending. I hope i can remember the line about 'where my visual periphery has gone' next time i feel the need to faint.
How does Rarity rattle off the formulation for lead glass but not know about uranium glass?